


Another Universe

by Elacular



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Completely Different Universe, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-13 14:29:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11187060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elacular/pseuds/Elacular
Summary: A different Earth. A different Rebellion. A different child. This is the story of Golden Beryl "Berry" Garcia and her family, the remnants of the Uncut Gem Rebellion on Earth. Updates on Mondays and Fridays.





	1. The Golden Child

**Author's Note:**

> This is only a Steven Universe fic in that it's about a universe which has gems in it. If that's acceptable to you, then please, feel free to take a read.

_..._

_“-you ready, Kayla? Are you sure you want-”_

_..._

_“-her cycles were supposed to stop, but-”_

_..._

  
  
_“No! I’m not letting you alien frankensteins try anything else unless you know it’ll work!”_

_..._

_“9 months isn’t nearly long enough!”_

_“It’ll have to be.”_

_..._

_“-never knew I’d be so happy to see you alive...”_

_..._

_“-don’t have to like us, but she is half-”_

_..._

_“She’s gonna go to school. That’s the first thing.”_

_“But Kindergarten-”_

_“It’s not like your kindergartens! Not even a little!”_

_..._

_“-can’t just go around calling her ‘Golden Beryl’.”_  
_“But that’s what she is.”_  
_“Still sucks. She needs a human nickname. Like...Berry. You like that?”_

_..._

_“-gonna have to contribute to the family finances.”_  
_“Oh please, it’s because of us that you humans have an economy.”_  
_“Oh yeah, I’m gonna feed the lil’ kid with the economy! Grow up!”_

_..._

_“...Look. I...I’m scared.”_

_“I think we are too.”_  
_“Speak for yourself, Amber.”_  
_“I know you’re scared! You watch her sleep every night after reading about SIDS! Cobalt spends most of every day designing new baby care devices! I notice these things, Moss! I’m not stupid!”_

_“...yeah. You’re not.”_

_..._

_“We have to figure this out together.”_

_“I’m sorry we got you into this.”_  
_“You’re not the one I need to hear it from. But thank you.”_

_“One way or another though, we need to do this._

_For her.”_


	2. Bent Glow (Part 1)

A young girl, about four and a half feet tall, walked along a poorly maintained road, autumn leaves falling down in her face. She was a little overweight and wore a short sleeved purple T-shirt with a cracked diamond emblazoned on it, along with khaki capri pants and light blue sneakers. She pushed her purple-rimmed glasses up on her face, freckles dotted across her nose, and adjusted her floral backpack on her back so that it wasn’t tugging at her past-shoulder length dark brown hair. What most people would notice, however, was the teardrop shaped, soft yellow, translucent gemstone, larger than any would naturally be, that rested in her neck right where her collarbones met. 

 

After a moment, she looked up and smiled softly as she saw what she was looking for: A largish building, constructed around a four-corners of orange, strangely shiny trees, with the words “Gem Museum” on a sign in front. What she noticed, however, was a dark brown woman in an orange dress, seated on the roof of the building, underneath the canopies of the two front trees. The girl sighed with annoyance before walking over to the nearest tree to her, a pine with a strange, glassy coat covering its wood, but not its spines. With a low grunt, she pulled herself up onto one of the lower branches, then the next, clambering up the tree until she crawled across the branch arching over the woman on the roof and fell, unceremoniously, next to her.

 

The woman looked up with a start and glanced over. She had reddish brown skin and wore a thin, flowing orange dress with no sleeves. She was tall, over six feet, and very thin and spindly, with limbs that seemed too long for her body. Her head was half bald, the left half growing a mop of wiry hair a shade or two darker than her skin which often blocked half of her face, including the translucent deep-red circular gem embedded in her left cheek. She looked down and smiled softly at the girl next to her. “Hey Berry,” her voice was higher than you’d expect, “what are you doing up here?”

 

Berry smiled as one of the woman’s long, spidery hands moved to gently tuck a lock of hair behind her ear along with her glasses. “Um, I got something to tell you, Amber. It’s not very bad, but it’s annoying and we need to deal with it and I gotta tell everyone. So I’m gonna try and get everyone together in a half hour. Dad’ll come too, I already asked him.”

 

Amber arched her thin eyebrows. “Hm. Well, you won’t find Moss, she’s giving a tour. I’ll go tell her though. Cobalt’s probably down in the basement. You can find her.”

 

“Mm,” Berry nodded. “Bring me down?”

 

She held her arms up, and Amber snickerd. “Sure.” The larger woman stood up, her body unfolding to a full 6’6”, and she grabbed onto Berry’s small, soft hands with her own large, cold ones. From her back, a set of four dragonfly-like wings peeled off, flapping fast enough to become a blur as she lifted Berry up by her hands and flew down, placing her lightly on the ground before flying off into the forest. Berry waved, but couldn’t stand to wait long as she turned and jogged inside. A teenaged woman in a hijab sat at the front/gift shop desk, boredly wobbling a pencil in front of her face. She glanced up and smiled slightly. “Hey golden girl!”

 

“Hey Nadia! Sorry, can’t talk. Gotta find Cobalt.”

 

“Sure. Careful down there, her experiments have been a bit pissy today.”

 

Berry barely paid attention as she ran back to the rear of the museum, past the gift shop, past the bubbled gem exhibit and past all the artwork of ancient gems before reaching a door in the rear. There was a symbol, just like that on her shirt, embedded into the door. At the highest point of the cracked diamond was a reddish gem. It looked similar to Ambers, but at close glance, it was a regular piece of amber, if a large one. On the left corner of the crack between the diamond’s upper and lower half, there was a piece of pale, green-striped moss agate. To the right of it, by the other corner, there was a horizontal diamond of blue cobalt spinel. And finally, at the bottom corner, there was a teardrop shaped piece of golden beryl, just like hers. Berry stared at it, willing it to open. She lifted her chin as high as it would go and stood on her toes to try and get her neck level with the Beryl on the door. After, for a moment, nothing happened, she sighed and banged on the door with her fist. “COBALT! I know you’re in there, open up!” There was a pause, then, with a low whirr, the door did open up, blue lines appearing around the diamond to split it as it pulled aside, to a dimly lit blue hallway. “Thank you!” Berry said as she walked through the door.

 

Along the hallway, there were a few stations: One had a message written in english: GET OUT! The sign also had that same message written in every human language, as well as one Berry recognized as Gemlang, though she still didn’t have the best handle on reading that. The next station stopped her, a pair of robotic arms coming down and shoving gloves that were far too large for her onto her hands. The third one was just a door. “Hello.” A robotic voice spoke up. Berry rolled her eyes. “Today's experiment is in...gemology, subcategory, corruption. Today's experiment danger level is...Diamond. If you have clearance, please vocally submit the password now.”

 

Berry heaved a sigh. “Contact administration, leave message.” After a moment there was a beep. “Cobalt you butthole, lemme in! There’s important stuff I need to talk to you about! Message complete, playback to admin.”

 

There was an affirmative hum from the machine, and when she pressed her ear against the door, Berry could just barely hear her own voice shouting over the speakers in the other room. After a moment, the door opened up, suddenly leaving her pressing on nothing and causing her to stagger forward. “Entrance allowed by administrator, welcome guest.”

 

Though she did her best to regain her footing, Berry ended up stumbling forward into a large, glassy blue lab. She found herself tripping past a line of light glowing through the translucent floor. She looked at the line, then heard a low growl. “Oh fu-”

 

Her body reacted before she could finish that expletive, Berry reflexively jumping out of the way as a massive, toothy, black and white beast leaped out to claw and snarl at her. It was sort of wolflike, with large, glassy eyes, but nobody would mistake it for a regular wolf. For one, it was the size of a horse. For another, it had six long, spindly legs. And its tail, rather than just being furry, was a long, sharp set of curved, metallic pieces. Most notably of all, though, there was a piece of Onyx embedded directly in its stomach.

 

“Hey, no, bad girl!” Berry jumped slightly, having been staring at the creature as it clawed at the invisible forcefield she had just leapt back through. A stocky blue gem, about five foot eight and wearing a labcoat over a dark blue jumpsuit and pale blue gloves, reached up to the sideways-diamond shaped gemstone on her forehead, took out a soft, silvery blue scimitar which was far larger than the gem she’d pulled it out of, and jammed it through the invisible force field and through the gem inside. The gem let out a horrifying shrieking noise before it destabilized, poofing and letting its gem fall to the floor where the blue gem stepped in and picked it up. “Well, that was a wash. You okay, kiddo?”

 

“Y-yeah.” Berry took a slow, deep breath, watching as the gem formed a dark blue bubble around the Onyx before sending it away and running a gloved hand through her short mess of curly, navy hair. “What the heck were you trying to do, Cobalt?”

 

“Eh, checking its reactions to stimulus against those of other corrupted gems with known identities.”

 

“You...knew her?”

 

Cobalt looked down and smiled gently, mussing Berry’s hair. “Not, like, as a friend or anything. I just knew how she was. I was trying to see if any vestiges of previous identity remained intact, but with her it’s frankly hard to tell. Now there’s one gem that would be really useful to do this experiment with, but obviously that’ll be over Moss’ shattered gem, and nobody needs that. Aaaann-y-way,” She sat down, cross legged on the ground, and Berry crouched next to her. “What’s on your mind, Beryl?”

 

“Ehhhhhhh...bit of a long story. Just come outside in half an hour, okay? I’m gonna tell everyone it then.”

 

“Alright. Whatever you say, kiddo. Computer!” Cobalt’s soft smile went serious in the blink of an eye as she turned to yell at the lab’s system. “Remind me in half an hour to go outside. Okay, that ought to do. Now head out and do something for a half hour, I gotta see if there’s any viable way to continue this experiment.”

 

Berry sighed and walked out of the room, climbing up and sitting on the sign, playing with her DS until the time came around.

 

Time went quicker than she had expected, and soon she was brought away from her pokemon game by a hand on her shoulder. “Hey babygirl,” A soft, mid-tone voice said, and Berry felt herself smile. 

 

“Dad!” Berry turned over and laid on the sign, hugging the man standing in front of it around the neck as he hugged her back, laughing. He had brown skin and was clearly hispanic and he wore jeans and a wifebeater. He was rather thin and short (only 5’6”) with slightly broad hips, and his hair was a mohawk, dyed a reddish auburn color, though the dye was clearly both washing and growing out. Though he dressed young, the stress lines on his face made him seem a bit older than the mid thirties he actually was. Either way, though, he was smiling as he let go of Berry. She smiled back, but checked the clock on her DS. “Hmm..you’re early. The gems aren’t here yet.”

 

“Ah, that’s fine. Tell me how your game’s going?”

 

“Oh, I’m trying to defeat a fairy type gym leader!”

 

“Didn’t have that type when I was little, What’re they weak against again?”

 

As a few minutes passed, Berry told her dad about the new pokemon, and he acted smug every time he recognized an old one. “Hey, I know that one, that’s a Clefairy! Come on, get a fighting type up against that!”

 

“No, dad, Clefairies are fairy types now. It’s right in the name.”

 

“What!” He moved his face up close to the upper screen of the DS. “You dirty double crosser...Come on, babygirl, kick her butt!”

 

“Daaaad, you got spit all over the screen!” 

 

Berry snickered and started cleaning the screen off, but a yell from a ways away attracted both of their attentions. “Heeeey, Miles is here!” Miles sighed and rolled his eyes as Cobalt walked out of the museum, a pair of goggles pulled up onto her forehead. She jogged over to them, smiling broadly. “Miles! Good to see you!” Miles grunted, but Cobalt barely seemed to notice as she leaned so her crossed arms were on the sign next to Berry.. “Whatcha doing, Berry? Oooh, pokemon! My favorite is Starmie. It’s clearly a corrupted gem, but you can befriend it! Love the optimism.”

 

“So when are the others gonna get here?” Miles said.

 

“Iunno.” Berry shrugged. “Amber’s going to get Moss, but she was in the middle of a tour, so she may be a bit. She probably wants to finish it up.”

 

It was a few more minutes of Berry excitedly telling the human and the gem about her battles when they heard a rustle from the nearby forest. After a few moments, a large woman, about the same height as Cobalt, but more than twice her mass, walked out of the woods, leading a small group of people as she walked with a thin bo staff. Among those people was Amber, quietly bringing up the rear. “Alright everyone,” said the large woman, speaking in a low, dark voice. Her skin was white, like porcelain, but was crossed all over with dark green, squiggly marks. Her hair was dark green as well and hung down to the top of her thighs in tight, vinelike dreadlocks. She was very wide, with broad hips and thighs, thick, strong arms and a large belly and chest, and she wore a short, light green dress which dipped low in the front to show her cleavage (a “marketing tactic” she called it) and stopped as a ruffled, wide skirt halfway down her thighs. “Thank you very much for taking the ‘Gem history in the Golden Woods’ tour. I have been your guide, Moss Agate. Please feel free to explore the rest of the museum and peruse our lovely gift shop. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to help my little girl with something.” She and Amber came over to the sign, Amber softly tapping her fingers together, Moss sashaying with a soft smile. As soon as she was in reach, she leaned on the sign, grinning up at Berry. “Hey, sweetie. Well, gang’s all here. What was it you were wanting to talk about?”

 

Berry shifted awkwardly, putting her DS aside. “Okay, so...first things first, this isn’t my fault.”

 

“All the best stories start out that way!” Cobalt said brightly, but Amber silently covered her mouth.

 

“It really isn’t though! So, I was called to the principal’s office for no reason, and he wanted to talk about family or something. And he talked about how he needed to know I was being raised properly and he knew I wasn’t usually living with you, dad.” Miles grunted and muttered something under his breath. “And he demanded that he and my teacher meet the ‘mom’ I’m living with tonight. So...I guess I’m supposed to bring you guys?”

 

“What a tool,” Miles grumbled. “Man, I even set up this night to be free too.”

 

“I’d still like you to come, dad. If it’s okay.” Berry said, scratching the back of her head. “You know...to be, like, a bridge?”

 

Miles smiled lightly. “Sure thing, babygirl. I can handle old principal leatherface. He was a teacher here back when I was a kid, I know how he works. This is a power trip, plain and simple. Frankly, I’m half tempted to just let you lot on him full force, but from what you’ve told me, your teacher doesn’t deserve that.”

 

“Oh, no, Ms. Salt is lovely.” 

 

Moss smirked. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

 

“No, Moss,” Amber shook her head. “We’re definitely assholes.”

 

Miles made an abortive attempt to cover Berry’s ears, but she was already giggling. “Okay, okay! S-so, I’ll work on my homework and we’ll walk to school together at six o'clock, okay?”

 

“Alriiiiight! Socializing with the humans! I better bring my camera visor, I’ll wanna record this and take notes. Hey, Miles!” Cobalt poked at his chest and he rubbed at the spot she had touched. “You wanna help me set up? You know, be my labby, like old times.”

 

The human briefly looked like he’d just bitten into a lemon. “Nnnnno.”

 

“Aw, what? Maaaan,” Cobalt slumped, but Amber gently pushed her out of the way.

 

“It’s just as well,” Amber said, turning towards Miles, “You already agreed to help me take a look online and see if a car might be right for us gems. Right Miles?” She winked with the eye Cobalt couldn’t see. 

 

“Ah...yeah, right. Let’s do that.”

 

Amber smiled and led Miles inside. “You two take care of Berry, alright? I’ll be in my room with Miles.” With that, she and Miles walked inside.

 

As Amber and Miles walked into the museum, Cobalt looked over her shoulder for a moment before turning back to look at Moss and Beryl. “Well, alright. I could set up my Visor for the meeting, but eh, I can do that on the way there as long as I grab it. What do you to wanna do?”

 

“Well,” Moss said, “I’d like to check and make sure Nadia’s doing her job. But I trust that Miles would at least speak up if she wasn’t. What about you, sweetie?”

 

“I wanna practice summoning my gem weapon some more.” Beryl said, dropping her backpack over the side of the sign and standing up on top of it, rubbing at the gem in her neck.

 

“Pthbbbbbt.” Cobalt stuck out her tongue. “That’s not a thing you practice, it’s just a thing you do.”

 

“Not always,” Moss gently flicked the side of Cobalt’s head. “Lavender had to put in immense effort to summon her chains, and she was the greatest hero gemkind has ever known.”

 

“Yeah, but she was a Pearl, that, like, makes sense. Pearls aren’t made to fight, so of course she had to try super hard. But this is Golden Beryl.” Cobalt gestured at the gem in Berry’s neck.

 

“She’s also like nothing that’s ever existed before.”

 

“Hey, uh, curious here.” Berry sat back down again, pulling her knees up to her chest. “What is it that Golden Beryls are supposed to do anyway?”

 

Cobalt opened her mouth, but Moss quickly covered it. “Ahp-ap-ap, no. You were there, Cobalt, you have no excuse. Golden,” Moss smiled softly up at her. “The whole point of the Uncut Revolution was that Gems aren’t defined by their gem. What we were made for, what we were planned for...it isn’t what we are.”

 

“Yeah, but what’s the harm in telling me at least a little?” Berry shrugged. “I’d like some direction is all.”

 

Moss looked away. “Berry...the role which is set for us isn’t a gift. Often times, it and the actions that it entails can become burdens that weigh on us our entire lives. I don’t want that for you. I just-ah! What th-”

 

Moss yanked her hand away and glared down at Cobalt, rubbing the bite mark the blue gem had left in her finger. “Yeah, it’s easy for you to say that, and it’s easy for me to say that, but Beryl’s completely different. She’s part human. She doesn’t instinctively know what she’s for, and that’s cause humans aren’t for anything. They just kinda...exist.” Cobalt sighed. “Look, take me for example. Spinels are supposed to be stubborn, argumentative, hyperactive soldier meatheads.”

 

“Yeah,” Moss smirked, still rubbing her hand. “You’re only three of those things.”

 

“Aaaaaand,” Cobalt glared at Moss, “The two I’m not are the important ones. Instead of embracing death, I chose life! I am intelligent! I am meaningful! I am a scientist! And my work will change everything about gemkind someday! Yeah...someday...” A goofy grin spread over her face before she quickly shook her head. “Uh, so, the point is, I’d totally tell you, but if I do, Moss is gonna break her undercarved pool cue over my head, and I don’t wanna deal with that today. Sorry.”

 

“Uuuuuugh!” Berry flopped backwards on the sign, glaring up into the sky. “I  _ know _ what being a human is, that comes naturally to me! Why doesn’t gem stuff?”

 

“In fairness,” Moss twirled her bo-staff as she spoke, “many gems don’t take to...’gem stuff’ right away either. We really only start forming permanent memories at 50 years, and gems before that mark tend to be very forgetful and clueless.”

 

“Fifty years?” Berry sat up, her glasses almost flying off her face, barely holding on to one ear. “Whaddaya mean fifty years? Am I gonna be old and wrinkly and half dead by the time I start figuring this gem crap out?”

 

“I...maybe?” Cobalt shrugged.

 

Moss reached over and flicked Cobalt’s temple again, drawing a yelp out of her. “The point is, we don’t know.” She smiled at Berry and gently moved her glasses back onto her face. “You’re like nothing that’s ever been...at the very least like nothing we’ve ever known about. We’re traveling an entirely unbeaten path, and our job is to keep you from getting hurt and to patch you up when you do, okay?”

 

“I guess. Still wish I could be more useful to you though.”

 

Over the next few hours, Cobalt and Moss talked about how they went about summoning their weapons. Moss summoned hers by “focusing on my desires, and how using my weapon would help me fulfil them.” Cobalt summoned hers by “I dunno, just putting my hand near my gem and being like ‘gimme.’ I don’t have a brain, so it’s not like I could give myself a CAT scan...hm...when you figure out how to summon your weapon, can I scan your brain?”

 

“I...my instincts say that’s a terrible idea, just give me time to think of a reason,” Moss said.

 

Eventually, though, six thirty came. Cobalt quickly ran down to her lab and grabbed a visor to wear to the meeting, Moss went and told Nadia to shut down for the day, and Amber and Miles came out, Miles having put on a button up shirt over his undershirt. “Gotta look presentable if the principal is there, right?” He winked down at Berry.

 

With that, the five of them walked off towards the school, Moss carrying Berry on her broad shoulders.


	3. Bent Glow (Part 2)

Before too long, about half a mile away, they reached an old, brick and mortar building. Like the museum, it had a sign in front of it, reading “Orchid Orchards Middle School.” Underneath there was meant to be a platitude about learning or an important date or something in interchangable letters, but instead the sign had been vandalized to read “ST0P ST34L1NG 0uR V0W3LS!” It was parent teacher conference night all through the building, though the meetings were staggered, so there were a few cars already in the parking lot. A couple homogenous soccer moms stared at the gems and Miles, but a glare from Amber turned most of them away. As they walked into the building, Berry climbed down from Moss’ shoulders to point out the classrooms of her various teachers, though it was only her homeroom teacher they’d be meeting. Eventually, near the far end of the first floor of the school, they reached a room with just a thin, short woman in a polo and khakis and a pasty, balding, bureaucratic man sitting in a chair by her desk. “Oh, Berry! Please, come in!”

 

Berry walked over to her chair and sat down in it, as the teacher went over and shook the hands of all four adults. “She’s told me so much about you all! I’m Nora Salt, I’m her eighth-grade homeroom teacher, and you all are...Dad, Moss, Amber and Cobalt?” She pointed to each in turn, “Do I have that right?”

 

Miles opened his mouth to say yes, but the Principal cleared his throat. “Yes, and I’m Principal Etheface. I can certainly see that Berry’s...eccentricity came about organically. Now, which one of you is the mother? The rest of you will have to leave.”

 

The three gems glanced at each other before Moss stepped forwards. Her “marketing strategy” clearly seemed to work on Etheface, as his eyes quickly darted down before pulling themselves slower than would be ideal back to her face. “Principal, none of us are her mother. She lives sometimes with her father and sometimes with us. We’re the Uncut Gems.”  
  
“I...I don’t care what your band is named, ma’am.” He straightened up and adjusted his tie. “If you’re not the mother, where is she? And how can I be sure little...Golden Beryl is being raised correctly? She’s clearly quite small for her age.” Berry shrunk into herself a bit. “I just want to meet the parents to be sure she’s eating right, being taken care of, that sort of thing. And seeing you all arrive in body paint...one of you without even having shoes on,” he glared at Amber’s bare feet, “It doesn’t fill me with confidence.”

 

“Oh, sorry.” Amber quickly popped up onto her toes and tapped her heels together, a pair of strappy heeled sandals forming on her feet. “Is this better?”

 

Etheface blinked with shock and lifted a finger. “Um...y-yes. Thank you?”

 

“Okay, good. Then...” Amber took a step forward. Principal Etheface, though not traditionally intimidating, was not a small man, and it was clear that he wasn’t used to having to look up to people, but with the two inch heels, Amber had a good six inches on him, staring down at him with her chest only half a foot from his. “How dare you treat us that way.” She jammed her finger just above the second button on his shirt. “You may not understand us, but where do you possibly get off calling us not her family? We may not be precisely Berry’s mother, but she is ours. She is a member of the Uncut Gems, and you have no right to talk as though we’re something completely removed from who she is and what experiences! And by the way-”

 

Amber’s voice had gotten steadily louder and her off hand was clenched into a fist, trembling slightly. Etheface was leaning awkwardly back, wide-eyed, but Miles gently reached up and put a hand on Amber’s shoulder. “I, uh, think you put the fear of god into him enough, sis. Step back?”

 

“O-oh. Right.” Amber seemed to become smaller, taking a few steps back and crossing her arms, her hands gripping just below her shoulders. “I’m...I’m sorry.”

 

“What we’re saying,” Moss said, “Is that even though we may not be human, Berry isn’t either. Not...entirely at least. So you can’t exactly say that we’re not part of her life. But even though we’re not like you, we understand that going to school is a part of developing as a modern human child. We’re supportive of that, we do our best to understand it, and we’re here participating in it.”

 

“Not...human, huh?”

 

Cobalt glanced between the Principal and Ms. Salt, who was standing with her palm to her face. “Uh, I’m blue, stupid.”

 

“Cobalt!” Berry grabbed her arm and glared up at her. “You can’t just say that to a principal!”

 

“What’s he gonna do, give me detention?”

 

Moss cleared her throat. “Look, Mr. Etheface. I think we got off on the wrong foot. We understand that things like this can be hard to comprehend. Buuuuut, we have a museum! My card!” She reached into a fanny pack she wore while giving tours and pulled out a fancily designed business card.

 

_Uncut gems!_

_Saviors of the earth for 6000 years._

_Visit our museum! See back for times, prices and location._

 

“Feel free to visit, arrange class trips, learn about history from someone who was actually there...It seems like a good way to understand Berry a bit better.”

 

“...Uh?”

 

“That...is your intent, right Mr. Etheface?” Moss’ eyes narrowed. “Understanding our Berry better. I frankly can’t see any other reason you’d pull us away from our very important jobs on such short notice.”

 

Cobalt smirked as she watched the Principal struggle to get his footing back with Moss, but her eyes suddenly went wide as she saw an alert in the corner of her visor. She tapped the side of it, causing the alert to take up her whole screen. Only Berry noticed, though she definitely couldn’t read the Gemlang backwards through the wrong side. She did, however, recognize the map of the town, the red diamond moving towards them, and the look on Cobalt’s face. “Shiiiiit. Uh, dudes? We got a thing.”

 

All the others in the room glanced back at her, and Moss sighed with annoyance. “Now? Ugh, they always have the worst timing. If you’ll excuse us-”

 

“Hey, no, wait! We still need to...this isn’t...” Etheface stammered.

 

Miles rolled his eyes. “Man, give up. This is important.”

  
  
“SO IS YOUR DAUGHTER’S EDUCATION, SIR!”

 

Cobalt heaved a sigh and, pushing past the other adults, she grabbed Etheface around the hips and lifted him up over her head. “Hey, you can’t-” Ms. Salt began, but was cut off by Etheface’s screaming.

 

“Sorry, borrowing this!” Cobalt ran out of the room.

 

There was a moment of perfect still before Amber and Moss ran after her, Berry, Miles and Ms. Salt running after them. “Get back here!” Amber yelled.

 

At the front of the school, Cobalt burst out of the doors, nearly running down yet another bleached blonde soccer mom. She planted Principal Etheface firmly on the ground, glanced over her visor, then grabbed his cheeks with one hand and turned him to face a street, down which an elephant-sized gorilla like creature with yellow fur, no eyes, two mouths and a gem on its thigh was barreling. “Problem!” She turned his face towards herself and the other family members who had come out of the school. “Solution! Get it?” Etheface nodded weakly and she smiled, gently papping him on the cheek. “Good! Okay, ladies, we’re in business!”

 

Moss rubbed her temples. “You’re terrible.” Even so, she summoned her bo staff and walked out towards the creature as Amber pulled out a pair of what seemed to be clubs from her gem. Cobalt smiled broadly and shrugged before pulling out her scimitar and going to flank the monster.

 

The monster seemed to look between the three women, despite having no eyes. Moss stood in front of the parking lot entrance, legs wideset and slowly spinning her bo staff. Cobalt stood to the side near the residential area, holding her scimitar in both hands and grinning. And Amber stood by the more wooded, empty-ish area they had come from. Berry watched the tense scene, chewing on her nails and bouncing on her toes, her other hand near her neck as Miles half stood in front of her.

 

Amber was the first to act. With a loud crack, her “clubs” snapped open, revealing them to be fans. The sound was enough to finally make the monster decide, and it roared, charging on all fours at her. At the very last moment, Amber spread her arms and the fans wide and leapt in the air, using the fans to create a gust of wind that forced her higher as she formed her wings in the sky. The monster rammed headlong into a tree, and there was a sickening crack as it slowly came down hard on its head. Even so, the creature lifted up the trunk and threw it at Amber, shrieking as it did. Amber managed to dodge it, But the trunk was still headed for the residential area. “Cobalt!” She yelled.

 

“On it!” Cobalt jumped high into the air. Not quite as high as Amber, but high enough. She held her scimitar high above her head, a wild grin on her face, and jammed it into the trunk. The force alone was enough to cut halfway lengthwise through the tree, and it was clear from her shivering that she was holding back. As her sword was embedded in it though, icy blue lines formed on her body, quickly working their way up into the blade, then into the tree itself. The trunk hissed, smoke spewing out of the wood for a few seconds as it shrunk and went black all over, lightning scars and cracks forming in the bark until it finally exploded into a rain of charcoal and splinters. Cobalt cackled with glee, but failed to prepare herself for gravity, landing unceremoniously on her stomach on the ground.

 

The monster almost seemed to laugh, looking down at Cobalt, and it tried to lift a massive fist before it charged her, but something stopped it. The stump of the tree it had plowed into had half unrooted itself from the ground and wrapped its thick roots around the monster’s arm. The monster turned and stared at Moss Agate, who was focusing on the stump, her hands slowly twisting and gripping tighter as the roots did the same around the arm. As it was glaring at her and yanking to try and get its arm free of the wood, Cobalt crawled forward, quietly getting closer until she was close enough, then jammed her scimitar into its other hand, pinning it to the ground.

 

The monster shrieked in pain and the three gems began to move closer, closing in on it. At the very last moment, though, its second mouth opened, revealing a single, massive, unblinking eye. A strangled screech came out of this second moth, deeper than its usual screams, and from the school, the humans saw the battlefield get wavy, and the gems forms seem to be disrupted as more yells joined the screech. “What...” Miles squinted at the battlefield, which grew more distorted by the second. “A...mirage?”

 

Berry stared in horror, Miles not having thought to cover her eyes. She quickly glanced between the open mouthed terror of Ms. Salt, her father, the battlefield, and the empty spot where Mr. Etheface used to be before focusing on the ground. “...light. Dad, it’s distorting light! The gems are made of light!”

 

Without waiting, Berry ran forward into the battle, crouching down and grabbing two sharp pieces of wood as she did. She could hear her dad’s yell in the back of her head, hear his feet running after her, but she was faster than him. When she reached the distortion, her vision was suddenly a wash of colors. Light seemed to have been fractured, spread all across her vision like a cracked kaleidoscope, and she could hear the voices of the gems, as though they were underwater a thousand miles away. The screaming of the monster was loud enough to rattle her ribs, but she kept moving forward. She willed the smear of colors in front of her eyes to somehow become something coherent, but before it did, she bumped into something that felt like musculature and fur, but cold. Ambient temperature. She touched it and knew she was touching the monster. Its screams changed, just a bit, and she could feel its body pull as it tried to get its arms free again. As she felt around, somehow, in front of her eyes, the image of the golden gem imbedded in its thigh appeared. She put her hand where she saw it, and felt that the gem was there, and, with a slow smile, she jammed her two pieces of wood into either side of it, getting leverage and pushing until, with an airy _BOOM_ , reality suddenly snapped back and the monster was gone, its gem falling to the ground in a poof of vague, yellow light.

 

Out of the corner of her eye, Berry could see the gems quickly pulling themselves back from their distorted forms to their usual baseline, but she knew she didn’t want to look too close. Instead, she crouched down and picked up the gem. It was larger than hers, a pale yellow and extremely cloudy, but the way the light played off it...

 

As she was focusing on the gem, to her shock, a golden bubble appeared around it. “Berry!” She turned and saw Moss kneeling down behind her a hand on her shoulder as her white hand gently touched the bubble alongside Berry’s. “You bubbled your first gem!”

 

“Never mind that!” Cobalt yelled, clapping Berry hard on the other shoulder. “You destroyed that thing! I mean, I didn’t see it because light was all messed up, but I heard you do it! I knew it was you! That was amazing Beryl!”

 

Before she could even speak, Amber had knelt in front of her and was hugging her. “I’m just glad you’re safe...”

 

Berry hugged Amber, but it was just as much a way to get both of her hands around the bubble. “I...did it. I did gem stuff...” She barely even noticed as Miles hugged her from behind until she realized she couldn’t squirm out of all the arms. “O-okay, that’s enough, back off everyone.” They gave her some space and she held the bubble in her hands. “I...honestly didn’t think this would be the first thing.”

 

“Neither did we,” said Cobalt, “but we don’t know anything about how this is gonna work. All I know is that that was freaking amazing.”

 

“No,” Everyone glanced in shock at Amber as she shook her head. “Not for us. We got overconfident. We knew what that gem was, even if we’ve never seen one corrupted before. We should have taken care of it more quickly.”

 

Moss looked down. “...true. But we can talk strategy back home. For now, let’s finish handling things with Berry.” She smiled gently and placed a hand underneath of Berry’s. “Hey, you think you can send this back home? To the gem cache in my room, not the display bubbles.”

 

Carefully, Berry touched the bubble. She seemed to instinctively know how to avoid popping it. The instinct slowly drew her hand up to the top of the bubble. “Yeah...yeah, i think I can do that.”

 

Berry pressed her hand against the top of the bubble, deforming it for just a second, and just as quickly, it was gone. Something in the back of her mind told her that it was at home where it belonged. As the adrenaline wore off, she hissed slightly and glanced at her hands, realizing they were full of splinters. Cobalt winced sympathetically at seeing that. “Uh hey, can we get some tweezers over here or something? I don’t wanna have to run back home to get mine.”

 

The rest of the Parent Teacher conference was spent with Ms. Salt talking to Miles and the uncut gems as Berry had splinters pulled out of her palms.


End file.
